


What's in a Name?

by zinke



Category: Castle
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-06
Updated: 2011-03-06
Packaged: 2017-10-16 03:42:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/168044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zinke/pseuds/zinke
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>'Why Castle?'</p>
            </blockquote>





	What's in a Name?

**Author's Note:**

> I started this over a month ago in response to the following prompt from…a ficathon who’s name I totally can’t remember (yes, it’s been _that_ long): _Castle/Beckett, what's in a name?_. I’ve been feeling out of the writing groove the past couple weeks, so decided to dust this off and see what I could do with it. And then there was banter. Yays!
> 
> Thanks to Linz for agreeing to be my bad-pun guinea pig.

“Why Castle?”

At the sound of his name Castle freezes, eyes widening slightly as the top of the nesting doll he’s been fiddling with falls to the floor with a clunk. Ducking down, he retrieves the lacquered wooden head and fits it back into place. “Sorry,” he stammers, returning the doll to its place on Beckett’s desk with exaggerated care. “I didn’t mean to—”

“What?” Her gaze moves back and forth between the doll and Castle’s nervous visage. “No; I meant why ‘Castle’? Why not ‘Smith’ or ‘Thompson’ or…I don’t know,” Kate take a quick glance at the file spread open on her desk. “’Ehrlichmann?”

“Do I really look like an ‘Ehrlichmann’ to you?”

“Maybe not. But a _klugscheißer_? Definitely.”

Castle narrows his eyes and reaches into his pocket for his phone. He’s midway through a search for an English-German translation app when Beckett unceremoniously plucks the device from his fingers. “Castle? The name?”

He shoots her a sour look before leaning back in his chair and folding his hands in his lap. “’Castle’ is a strong word. Etymologically, the way it sounds when spoken aloud and looks on the page. They’re impressive structures; enduring, mysterious. Not to mention romantic,” he adds with a playful waggle of his eyebrows.

Kate rolls her eyes. “But why bother to change it at all? I’d understand it if your last name was Richards, Ettie, O’Shea—”

“Roled,” he adds with a grin.

“Cute. My point is: Rick Rodgers isn’t a bad-sounding name. So…why?”

Castle shifts slightly in his seat and reaches for the babushka doll he’d been playing with earlier. “I was born a few months after Mother’s award-winning run in _Oklahoma_ ,” he explains as he pops the heads off the nested figurines one by one and lines them up on the edge of Kate’s desk. “She was…inspired.”

Beckett’s initial look of confusion gradually gives way to understanding. “Rodgers and Hammerstein.”

Castle nods. “A lot to live up to, with a name like that. And I decided that, if I was going to make a name for myself as a writer, I wanted it to be my own and no one else’s.” Looking up, he catches Beckett watching him, her lip between her teeth as she struggles to suppress a grin. “Go ahead; say it.”

“What?”

”Whatever clever reply it is you’ve got sitting on the tip of your tongue.” Castle leans across the desk and gives her a knowing look. “You know you want to.”

Kate watches Castle levelly, the faintest of smiles curling her lips. “I could use some coffee.” Rising abruptly to her feet, she hands him back his phone and starts off towards the break room. “You coming?”

Castle hesitates, his gaze shifting from Beckett’s retreating form to the phone in his hand. Hurriedly he opens the device’s web browser and does a quick Google search.

“Hey!” he exclaims as he hustles after her, “I am _not_ a smart ass!”

 

*fin.*


End file.
